Lake Victoria environmental management project Tanzania
/ 2004

The Lake Victoria Environmental Management Project (LVEMP) involves cooperative management, and complementary activities among Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. Findings of the 1995 environmental analysis identified four main issues of concern: fisheries management interventions; aquaculture and new species; water hyacinth control methods; and, pollution control. Despite the nature of the project being specifically to improve the environmental conditions of Lake Victoria and its catchment, its broad aspect defines the project as under Category B, to ensure adequate attention to overall impacts, and to individual components, which might adversely affect the local environment. Mitigation measures stipulate the following: interventions, such as changes in net sizes, or other controls over fishing, shall be clearly defined, and assessed, accompanied by measurable responses in the system, and methods measuring the relevant parameters; the scale of aquaculture should be limited until the system requirements are established, and, no new species should be introduced in the lake in the short term, not envisaged as desirable even in the long term. However, provided promoters demonstrate, to the satisfaction of the scientific community, that no adverse effect could occur following the introduction of new species, a full environmental assessment should be undertaken. Similarly, reintroduction of native species should abide by schemes developed at a pilot scale, so that large scale projects can be predicated, and evaluated; local supply, and introduction of water hyacinth weevils is widespread, and successful in reducing hyacinth to acceptable levels - there are no possible long term ecological risks in doing so; while there has been no pollution control projects, characterization of industrial effluents has been done, and few industries started to implement cleaner production; studies on buffering capacity of wetlands shall determine their capacity to buffer nutrients, and effluents entering the lake